Fabrice Caduc: How One Simple Trick Can Reveal Your Invisible Web Secrets

mercredi 21 avril 2010

How One Simple Trick Can Reveal Your Invisible Web Secrets

Personal Branding 101

You probably think you have a darn good grasp of how you portray yourself to the world wide web – and maybe you are right. But, is it possible that the overall message you convey is different than expected? Here is an unusual method to potentially discover unseen truths about your online communications – and three ways to go about it.

The following semi-unscientific method uses Wordle.net to create “word clouds” of any website or chunk of text you specify. Essentially, the application ranks all the words used by frequency, and enlarges those words used most often. Learn more about word clouds and Wordle here.

What do you think the most commonly used words would be for your:

Blog?
Twitter stream?
Linkedin profile (or resume)?

Here is the word cloud for this blog, Personal Branding 101. See anything interesting or unexpected? I notice that my own name doesn’t show up anywhere and I mention social media tools a heck of a lot. As expected, “personal branding” and “personal brand” dominate the page. What would the top four or five words be for your blog?

This image is a little more interesting – it is the word cloud for my Twitter stream, going all the way back to my first tweet a year ago. Who knew I sent so many RTs about personal branding? (OK, maybe that was obvious). But, who knew I said “thanks” so darn much?

To gather data for your entire Twitter history, visit TweetStats.com, enter your Twitter ID, and click “Tweet Cloud”. In the middle right, there is an option to convert to a more aesthetically pleasing Wordle.

This final option will be most intriguing for job-seekers. Ever wonder what the net impression of your resume or Linkedin profile might be? Simply copy/paste the entire contents into the Wordle text field, and…presto.

Here is the word cloud for my Linkedin profile. Interestingly (yet expected), the focus shifts from personal branding to advertising, media, and investments (as that is what I do for a living). What would you expect yours to show?

This method is by no means fool-proof. It is simply a fun, easy way to explore the messages you broadcast across the web. Try it out, and let me know what you discover.